ArticleEuropean journal of physical and rehabilitation medicine2022
Reliability of point-of-care ultrasound for measuring quadriceps femoris muscle thickness.
Article in European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Precision medicine exploration of postpartum rectus abdominis muscle separation: from basic research to clinical practice.BMC surgery · 2025Pooled it
- Changes in lower limb muscle strength and corresponding gait changes following hip fractures in older adults: a narrative review.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Review
- Article
- Examiner experience moderates reliability of human lower extremity muscle ultrasound measurement - a double blinded measurement error study.The ultrasound journal · 2025Article
- Reliability of ultrasound assessment of the rectus femoris muscle thickness: intra-rater, inter-rater, and inter-day analysis accounting for age and sex.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2024Article
- Quantitative Assessment of Body Composition in Cirrhosis.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Comparison of ultrasonography-based masticatory muscle thickness between temporomandibular disorders bruxers and temporomandibular disorders non-bruxers.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Imaging Techniques to Determine Degree of Sarcopenia and Systemic Inflammation in Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma.Current urology reports · 2023Review
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPoint-of-care ultrasound can be used to assess muscle thickness. However, its reliability has not been fully evaluated.
aimThis study aimed to assess the intrarater and inter-rater reliability of point-of-care ultrasound for the estimation of quadriceps and rectus femoris thickness in patients from a rehabilitation setting.
designThis is a cross-sectional study.
settingThis study was conducted at the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of a tertiary care hospital. POPULATION: Twenty-nine inpatients consecutively selected after admission.
methodsFour observers, two trained and two untrained, used point-of-care ultrasound to measure quadriceps femoris and rectus femoris thickness. Each observer performed two measurements followed by a second set of two measurements three hours later. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were then calculated.
resultsBoth intrarater and inter-rater ICC were higher than 0.888 for both quadriceps and rectus femoris measurements. Reliability was highest when ICC were calculated based on the average of two measurements, with the intrarater ICC being of 0.956 (95% CI: 0.937-0.970) for rectus femoris and of 0.966 (95% CI: 0.951-0.976) for quadriceps femoris; and with the inter-rater ICC being of 0.919 (95% CI: 0.863-0.957) for rectus femoris and 0.945 (95% CI: 0.907- 0.971) for quadriceps femoris. Trained and untrained observers did not have significantly different ICC values.
conclusionsThese results suggest that point-of-care ultrasound is a reliable option to measure muscle thickness of knee extensors by the same or different observers. CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT: Measuring knee extensors thickness may aid to adequately modulate treatment choices in patients with disability. This study suggests that quadriceps and rectus femoris muscle thickness measured after a short training course, by either an experienced or inexperienced clinician, presents high reliability. Reliability can be increased if the average of two measurements is used. Besides being inexpensive and portable, point-of-care ultrasound is a reliable tool for measuring knee extensors' thickness, rendering it potentially adequate to be used in clinical practice.
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